Astrology aspects: the five major ones explained
Aspects are the angles that planets form with each other in a birth chart. They don't describe what a planet is — they describe how two forces inside you get along.
“Mars square Saturn” sounds like a technical detail. In plain language it means: the impulse runs into an inner brake.
The five major aspects
- Conjunction (0°) — two forces merge and amplify each other. They cannot be told apart. The risk is a blind spot: it feels so obvious to the person that they don't see it in themselves.
- Opposition (180°) — two forces stand against each other. It feels like a pendulum, or like a choice that isn't really a choice. It is often projected onto other people.
- Square (90°) — tension that pushes you to act. It keeps coming back until something is done about it. It isn't bad — it is the engine.
- Trine (120°) — ease and natural talent. The risk is that it goes unused for that very reason: what comes by itself goes unnoticed.
- Sextile (60°) — an offer to cooperate. It works, but only if you take it up.
Tense does not mean bad
This is the most common misunderstanding. Easy aspects give comfort; tense ones give movement. A chart of nothing but trines describes someone to whom a lot comes easily — and who therefore has no reason to stretch.
Orb is the deviation from the exact angle. The smaller it is, the stronger the aspect.
And yours come out named
Knowing what a square is does not yet tell you anything about yourself. The app lists the aspects your own chart actually has — and next to each one, in ordinary words, what it tends to do in a person.
The strongest ones get a card of their own, with a title instead of a code: Strength that doesn't have to shout for a Sun–Pluto trine, say — where its power lies, what its shadow is, and a question at the end.
Free and without an account. Date, time and place are enough.